I '  J  < 


1.  Y 


The  Church 

and 

International  Peace 


A  Series  of  Papers  by  the  Trustees  of 
THE  CHURCH  PEACE  UNION 

II 

The  Midnight  Cry 

by 

Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D. 


THE  CHURCH  PEACE  UNION 
70  Fifth  Avenue 


NEW  YORK 


The  Church  and  International  Peace 

A  uniform  series  of  papers  by  the  Trustees  of  The 
Church  Peace  Union,  treating  the  problems  of  war  and 
peace  from  the  point  of  view  of  religion,  and  especially 
emphasizing  the  message  the  Church  should  have  for  the 
world  in  this  time  of  war. 


ALREADY  PUBLISHED 

1.  The  Cause  of  the  War,  by  Rev.  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  D.D. 

2.  The  Midnight  Cry,  by  Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D. 


IN  PREPARATION 

1.  Christ  or  Napoleon — Which?  by  Rev.  Peter  Ainslie,  D.D. 

2.  Europe’s  War,  America’s  Warning,  by  Rev.  Charles  S.  Mac- 

farland,  Ph.D. 

3.  The  Way  to  Disarm,  by  Hamilton  Holt. 

4.  The  Breakdown  of  Civilization,  by  Rev.  William  Pierson  Mer¬ 

rill,  D.D. 

5.  After  the  War — What?  by  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D. 

6.  Our  Grounds  of  Hope,  by  Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence,  D.D. 

7.  The  United  Church  and  the  Terms  of  Peace,  by  Rev.  Frederick 

Lynch,  D.D. 

8.  The  Church’s  Mission  as  to  War  and  Peace,  by  Rev.  Junius  B. 

Remensnyder,  D.D. 

9.  Adequate  Armaments,  by  Prof.  William  I.  Hull 


The  Midnight  Cry 

A  Sermon  Preached  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  Bishop 
of  New  York,  in  the  Cathedral,  on  October  4. 

“At  midnight  there  was  a  cry  made.  Behold,  the  Bridegroom  cometh; 
go  ye  out  to  meet  him.” — St.  Matt.  xxv.  6. 

The  parable  to  which  these  words  belong,  whatever  else 
it  teaches,  pictures  in  vivid  form  what  seems  to  be  a  law  or 
method  of  human  progress.  It  is  this:  Not  only  that  good 
comes  out  of  evil,  which  is  a  matter  of  common  or  not 
uncommon  observation,  but  that  it  often  comes,  the  very 
greatest  good  out  of  the  very  worst  and  blackest  form  of  evil, 
when  the  evil  is  so  great,  so  terrible  and  so  appalling,  when 
it  is  midnight,  and  the  lamps  have  gone  out,  and  it  is  dark, 
very  dark,  and  men’s  hearts  are  failing  them  for  fear,  because 
in  the  darkness  they  have  lost  their  way,  then  it  is  that  the 
cry  is  heard — “Behold  the  Bridegroom  cometh;  go  ye  out 
to  meet  him!” 

Let  us  make  that  thought  our  theme  “The  Midnight  Cry.” 
And  first  I  remark,  that  when  the  evil  comes,  the  overwhelm¬ 
ing  evil,  or  the  great  calamity  falls,  crushing  out  our  courage 
and  blotting  out  our  hope,  for  ourselves  and  for  our  race — 
standing  in  those  ruins,  in  their  very  midst,  and  with  an 
experience  of  them,  then  it  is  that  something  like  a  feeling 
of  despair  is  apt  to  come  and  touch  and  take  possession  of  us 
and  like  a  heavy  mantle  wrap  its  darkening  folds  about  us. 
What  is  the  use  of  trying  to  hold  fast  and  hard,  through 
struggling  toil  and  sacrifice,  to  some  ideal  life?  Why  not  let 
it  go?  What  is  the  use  of  trying  to  make  the  world  better, 
to  lift  it  up  to  a  higher  plane  of  thought,  feeling  and  action ; 
to  lift  it  up  to  the  law  of  love  as  the  law  of  human  life? 
What  is  the  use?  What  are  all  our  efiforts  worth?  What  do 
they  amount  to,  when  we  seem  to  make  not  only  so  little 
progress  but  at  times  no  progress  at  all?  Or  when  in  a 


3 


moment  something  comes,  to  break,  to  shatter,  to  scatter,  all 
our  hopes  and  plans  and  all  our  best  attempts.  It  is  indeed 
a  midnight  time  in  human  life,  and  some  of  the  noblest 
natures  in  the  annals  of  mankind,  the  purest  and  the  best, 
have  had  experience  of  it.  It  is  in  fact  only  they,  or  chiefly 
they,  who  have  known  and  felt  it.  Not  those  who  seem  to  get 
on  in  this  world  so  well  and  so  contentedly  without  God,  but 
those  who  cannot  get  on  without  Him,  to  whom  life  without 
God  has  no  value  and  no  meaning,  and  yet  from  whom  at 
times  God  has  seemed  to  hide  Himself  and  to  be  so  far  away 
and  so  indifferent  to  them.  In  various  ways  has  this  experi¬ 
ence  come  to  them ;  when  in  the  confusion,  the  bewilderment, 
the  desolating  darkness  of  some  great  personal  suffering  or 
loss,  when  some  sharp  sword  has  pierced  them  to  the  quick, 
some  hard  and  heavy  blow  has  felled  them  to  the  earth,  and 
they  cannot  see  or  feel  or  find  their  way  to  God  in  Whom 
they  had  before  so  implicitly  believed.  Or  when  some  high 
and  holy  aim,  some  great  and  worthy  cause  to  which  they  had 
committed  themselves  and  for  which  they  had  labored,  and 
which,  as  the  cause  of  God,  they  felt  must  surely  win,  has 
failed  and  been  defeated,  and  God  does  not  seem  to  care;  as 
though  there  were  no  God! 

And  yet,  while  this  is  true,  how  often  is  it  also  true  that 
it  was  in  the  darkness  of  that  midnight  hour,  not  in  the  joy 
and  beauty  of  a  brilliant  noonday  of  prosperity  and  peace, 
but  in  that  midnight  darkness,  when  all  reality  seemed  to  be 
blotted  out,  when  God  Himself  for  a  time  seemed  to  be  blotted 
out,  that  then  the  voice  was  heard,  sounding  through  the 
darkness — “Behold,  the  Bridegroom  cometh;  go  ye  out  to 
meet  him!”  And  they  did  go  out;  they  went  and  found  and 
knew  Him  then  as  they  had  never  known  Him  before,  and 
with  a  stronger  faith  in  Him  and  a  richer  experience  of  Him 
and  a  deeper  devotion  to  Him  they  entered  into  the  joy  of 
Has  fellowship  and  His  service  in  the  world.  We  have  read 
and  studied  to  little  purpose  the  Christian  experience  of  the 
past  if  we  have  not  seen  that  lesson  taught  and  have  not 
learned  that  truth. 


4 


There  is  one  particular  application  of  this  which  is  in 
all  our  minds  to-day,  and  which  I  wish  to  make.  Many 
Christian  people  have  the  belief,  the  conviction,  that  war  is 
not  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  or  the  tenor  of 
His  teaching.  Some  of  His  words  perhaps  when  wrested 
from  their  context  seem  to  warrant  or  justify  the  use  at 
times  of  the  sword,  and  yet  when  His  teaching  is  taken  as 
a  whole,  and  especially  when  interpreted  not  only  by  His 
Life,  but  also  by  His  Death,  the  whole  sublime  story  of  His 
Passion  and  His  Cross,  it  can  hardly  be  disputed  that  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  however  impracticable,  unworkable 
or  Utopian  it  may  seem,  does  not  in  itself  give  approval  to 
war.  That  at  least  is  the  opinion  of  very  many  of  us, 
that  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  only  a  kingdom  on 
the  earth  of  peace  but  a  kingdom  to  be  established  by  peaceful 
means  and  methods.  And  with  that  conviction  deeply  rooted 
in  us  we  have  wrought  and  labored  for  peace;  we  have  tried 
to  promote  it — Peace  and  Goodwill  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  and  had  seemed  of  late  to  make  some  good  and  hope¬ 
ful  progress.  A  strong  peace  sentiment  was  created  or  evoked 
and  very  widely  spread,  so  much  so  indeed  that  congresses 
and  parliaments,  kaisers,  kings  and  statesmen  recognized  and 
felt  it.  Peace  societies  were  formed,  peace  treaties  were 
made,  peace  tribunals  created,  and  arbitral  courts  established 
in  the  interests  of  peace.  It  seemed  indeed  as  though  the 
Golden  Age  had  come,  or  was  about  to  come.  War  was  to 
be  hereafter  the  remotest  of  contingencies;  for  was  not  the 
whole  world  armed  to  prevent  it?  Paganism  had  vanished 
from  the  Christian  civilization;  barbarism  had  gone;  and  the 
international  fighting  code,  like  the  duel  code,  if  not  dead 
was  dying,  and  the  dawn  of  peace  had  come.  Poets,  preachers, 
prophets,  and  even  politicians  were  singing  and  proclaiming 
its  swift  and  sure  advance: 

“The  dawn,  the  dawn  is  on  the  wing, 

The  stir  of  change  on  every  side. 

Unsignalled  as  the  approach  of  spring, 

Invincible  as  the  hawthorn  tide.” 


5 


YeSj  so  we  dreamed,  we  hoped,  we  ventured  to  believe. 
Then  suddenly,  in  a  moment,  almost  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye,  the  most  colossal  war  in  the  history  of  the  world  was 
on.  The  world  was  amazed  and  dazed.  It  was  unbelievable 
that  it  should  be  so,  and  yet  so  it  was.  It  seemed  as  though 
the  midday  sun  had  been  suddenly  blotted  out  and  that  a 
midnight  darkness  had  fallen  on  the  earth.  Or  it  seemed  as 
though  a  comet  had  suddenly  hit  the  earth  and  set  it  on  fire, 
and  that  all  its  best  possessions,  all  its  finest  treasures, 
its  greatest  and  choicest  values,  its  mental,  moral  and  material 
achievements,  so  slowly  labored  and  wrought,  its  art,  its 
science,  its  culture,  its  philosophy,  its  religion,  were  being 
consumed  in  the  flames.  As  an  English  correspondent,  an 
author  of  repute,  in  writing  to  a  London  paper  said:  “The 
big  stick  of  brutal  force  was  suddenly  thrust  into  the  exquisite 
and  delicate  mechanism  of  civilization,  and  civilization 
stopped,  stopped  dead.  Who  bothers  now,  he  asked,  about 
pictures  and  books  and  literature  and  painting?  Who  cares 
pow  to  hear  what  Bergson  and  Eucken  think?  We  are  back 
again  in  barbarism,  in  the  age  of  sticks  and  stones!” 

Yes,  it  is  all  true — pitiably  true;  but  it  is  not  the  whole 
truth.  It  is  the  voice  of  pessimism  and  panic,  and  if  it  can 
sound  no  other  note  it  would  better  sound  none.  If  civiliza¬ 
tion  is  wrecked,  Christendom  destroyed,  and  Christianity  has 
perished  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth  and  all  its  fair  ideals 
are  forever  gone,  then  quietly,  calmly  and  courageously,  still 
sticking  to  our  colors,  let  us  go  down  with  them  and  make 
no  fuss  about  it.  But  civilization  is  not  wrecked,  Christendom 
is  not  destroyed,  Christianity  is  not  dead.  Something  great 
and  good,  very  great  and  very  good,  is  coming  from  it  all. 
We  learn  geology,  says  Emerson,  the  morning  after  earth¬ 
quakes.  It  is  a  fearful  price  to  pay,  but  human  nature  being 
what  it  is,  and  the  orderings  of  the  world  being  what  they 
are,  we  have  to  pay  the  price.  So  from  this  great  world- 
upheaval  and  convulsion,  whose  cracks  are  reaching  out  to 
distant  lands  and  may  reach  our  own,  we  shall  see  more 
clearly  what  are  the  real  and  true  foundations  of  human  life. 

6 


We  shall  see  and  learn,  at  a  fearful  price,  at  a  fearful  earth¬ 
quake  price,  that  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  are  after  all 
true,  universally  true,  as  the  law  that  binds  the  stars  and 
holds  the  planets  is  true,  and  that  whatsoever  is  not  built 
upon  that  law  of  truth  will  be  just  as  surely  if  not  just  as 
speedily  wrecked  as  any  physical  fabric  not  built  on  the 
law  of  gravitation.  We  shall  see  and  learn  more  clearly  that 
the  way  in  which  to  overcome  the  evil  of  the  world  is  not  the 
way  of  slaughter  and  violence  and  war,  or  preparation  for 
war  in  the  interest  of  peace,  but  the  way  of  Jesus  Christ — 
the  hard  way,  the  heroic  way,  requiring  more  courage,  far 
more  courage  and  strength  than  simply  to  yield  to  the  animal 
impulse  in  us.  The  way  of  Jesus  Christ;  the  way  of  Him 
who  said,  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  what  I  teach  and  what  I  am, 
I  will  draw  all  men  unto  me.  The  way  of  Him  who  said, 
“Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I  give  unto  you;  not  as 
the  world  giveth  give  I  unto  you.” 

To  some  extent  indeed  the  world  has  learned  and  learned 
to  respect  and  obey  this  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  chiefly 
(not  altogether,  for  there  is  much  Christian  work  and  conduct 
in  the  world),  but  chiefly  as  something  which  is  meant  for 
private  and  personal  use.  It  is  looked  upon.  His  teaching. 
His  religion,  as  chiefly  a  closet  affair,  or  as  something  by  the 
way,  like  those  little  stations  of  the  Cross  which  the  traveler 
meets  in  the  European  mountains,  very  appealing  and  helpful 
for  personal  devotion  and  pietistic  use,  but  when  it  comes  to 
great  world  affairs  and  to  the  management  of  great  world 
affairs,  commercial,  political,  national  and  international,  when 
ijt  comes  to  diplomacy  and  statecraft,  then  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  Christ,  however  good  and  admirable,  yea,  and  however 
true,  cannot  be  made  to  work.  And  so  men  have  tried  to 
work  the  world  without  it,  and  are  learning  now  from  experi¬ 
ence,  from  a  sad  and  bitter  experience,  that  they  cannot  work 
the  world  successfully  without  it.  Politicians  are  learning, 
statesmen  are  learning,  at  a  great  price — or  must  they  learn 
it  over  again  at  a  still  greater  price? — that  Jesus  Christ  in 
His  teaching,  apart  from  all  theological  interpretation  or 

7 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Columbia  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/midnightcryOOgree 


The  Church  Peace  Union 

(^Founded  by  Andrew  Carnegie) 

TRUSTEES 

Rev.  Peter  Ainslie,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Rev.  Arthur  Judson  Brown,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 
President  W.  H.  P.  Faunce,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Providence,  R.  I. 
His  Eminence,  James  Cardinal  Gibbons,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Rt.  Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York 
Rev.  Frank  O.  Hall,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Bishop  E.  R.  Hendrix,  D.D.,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Rabbi  Emil  G.  Hirsch,  LL.D.,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Hamilton  Holt. 

Professor  William  I.  Hull,  Ph.D.,  Swarthmore,  Pa. 

Rev.  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  LL.D.,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence,  D.D.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Rev.  Frederick  Lynch,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland,  Ph.D.,  New  York. 

Marcus  M.  Marks,  New  York 

Dean  Shailer  Mathews,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Chicago,  Ill. 

Edwin  D.  Mead,  M.A.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Rev.  William  Pierson  Merrill,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 
John  R.  Mott,  LL.D.,  New  York 
George  A.  Plimpton,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Rev.  Julius  B.  Remensnyder,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 
Judge  Henry  Wade  Rogers,  LL.D.,  New  York. 

Robert  E.  Speer,  D.D.,  New  York. 

Francis  Lynde  Stetson,  New  York. 

James  J.  Walsh,  M.D.,  New  York. 

Bishop  Luther  B.  Wilson,  DJD.,  LL.D.,  New  York. 


